Apollo Hospitals Group – the only healthcare organization in the World to be declared as a Winner of G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation by the Group Of 20 !

The Group of 20 announced the winners of the G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation, a global competition managed by IFC, a member of the World Bank Group at the G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, on June 18, 2012.

Apollo Hospitals was declared a winner (the only healthcare organization in the World) for it’s Reach Hospitals initiative. Apollo Reach Hospitals is an initiative of the Apollo Hospitals Group to take quality tertiary healthcare to semi-urban and rural areas in the country. Apollo Hospitals Group provides specialized medical services in India’s underserved rural areas and smaller towns.

Apollo Reach Hospitals were created to bridge the healthcare access gap by making specialized healthcare available to the poorest people. The Apollo Reach Hospital in Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh was chosen by Apollo Hospitals Group to represent its model in the G20 Challenge. Dr. Manmohan Singh, Hon’ble Prime Minister of India inaugurated this facility in 2008. This pioneering initiative of the Apollo Hospitals Group aims to reach world-class healthcare to semi urban and rural India. Apollo Reach has a wide array of offerings apart from regular medical facilities, including pharmacies to insurance services.

Ms Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group said, “We are extremely proud to be recognized by the G20 for our efforts in bringing about a visible change in the lives of people at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP). More than 25 percent of families in India live on the margins, spending less than US$70 a month on goods and services. Many of their basic needs go unmet, and they have little access to clean water, financial services, and education. More than 85 percent of these families live outside major cities. Unfortunately, most tertiary healthcare facilities in India are located in major metropolitan areas – meaning that most Indians have little or no access to specialized healthcare services. We consider it our responsibility to extend the same kind of healthcare services and facilities to smaller towns. This is our way of reinvesting in the ecosystem and contributing to the Indian society at large.”

Apollo Reach Hospitals operate in less-developed population centres – termed Tier II cities – and offer medical care at rates up to 30 percent lower than other major hospitals. Within Reach Hospitals, low-income care is subsidized by services sold to high-income patients from the same area.

The world’s leading economies launched the G20 Challenge to rapidly expand commercially viable businesses that serve the large numbers of low-income people that constitute the base of the global economic pyramid. Its goal is to identify, showcase, and support innovative business models that can be replicated across developing countries.

The online competition was launched to find the best examples worldwide of businesses in developing countries that provide critical goods, services, and livelihood opportunities in financially, environmentally, and socially sustainable ways to those living at the bottom of the pyramid, called ‘inclusive businesses’. The G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation recognized businesses with innovative, scalable, and commercially viable ways of working with low-income people in developing countries.

An independent judging panel – including representatives from the G20, the private sector, academia, foundations, and International Finance Institutions – selected 15 Challenge winners based on the following criteria:

• Innovation
• Development results
• Potential for growth, including replication of the business model in other markets
• Financial sustainability
• Environmental and social sustainability

“The winners demonstrate that commercially viable companies can also provide economic opportunities for poor people-along with better access to clean water, electricity, health care, education, housing, phone services, and financial services.” said Lars Thunell, IFC Executive Vice President and CEO. “They provide impressive models for others to follow.”

The awards were presented by Ambassador Rogelio Granguillhome, Chair of the G20 Development Working Group, Dr. Edmund Duckwitz, Ambassador of Germany to Mexico and Mr.Lars Thunell, Executive Vice President of IFC at a grand award ceremony on June 18, 2012.